A better future

Is Your Manager Trained to Distrust You? Blame Economics!

Good managers base their strategic decisions and their treatment of
staff on anticipated reactions. But what happens if your manager’s
understanding of human nature means they are inherently distrustful of
you?

Behavioral analysts writing in Management and Organization Review argue
that the teaching of economics in management training has given managers
a false set of assumptions about people meaning they are less able to
accurately predict how their staff will react.

The authors show that management training which focuses on rationality
and self-interest, both key concepts in economics, lead future managers
to assume that their workers are untrustworthy, which makes them rely on
excessive safeguards, monitoring, and piece-rate pay.

While this may be bad news for staff, such a management style seems to
pay dividends for bosses. The research shows that when such behavioral
assumptions are key components of MBA business school courses, the
graduates can see their average salaries rise by between $920.74 and
$1,113.04.